How to tell binary from text files in linux

Question

The linux file command does a very good job in recognising file types and gives very fine-grained results. The diff tool is able to tell binary files f

Answer 1

This approach uses same criteria as grep in determining whether a file is binary or text:

is_text_file() { 
  grep -qI '.' "$1"
}

grep options used:

• -q Quiet; Exit immediately with zero status if any match is found
• -I Process a binary file as if it did not contain matching data

grep pattern used:

• '.' match any single character. All files (except an empty file) will match this pattern.

Notes

• An empty file is not considered a text file according to this test.
• Symbolic links are followed.